


Get it Off Your Chest

by viviegirl05



Series: Wooing Barry [3]
Category: The Flash
Genre: Barry Whump, Food, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, recap of season one and Eowells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 12:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viviegirl05/pseuds/viviegirl05
Summary: Len and Mick show up to make food on Barry's day off and Barry ends up telling them all about Eobard.





	

It was Barry’s day off- from the CCPD, he was still on call as the Flash. He was relaxing at home with a gallon of ice cream (his favorite, rocky road) and watching a documentary on Atlantis when the door clicked open. Barry looked over, setting his ice cream on the coffee table in front of him and preparing himself to fight whoever was breaking in, only to relax when Mick and Len walked in laden with grocery bags.

“Hey Doll,” Mick said as he spotted Barry.

Doll?

“We’re making you Indian for dinner,” Len said as he kicked the door shut behind him.

“Cool,” Barry said. When did it become commonplace for Len and Mick- Captain Cold and Heatwave, _his nemeses_ \- to come to his apartment and cook for him? And it had literally only happened twice now, so why was he so used to it?

“We got everything we need for tandoori chicken, rogan josh, malai kofta, palak paneer, and home-made naan. Sound good?” Len listed as they set the bags on the counter and started unpacking.

“Yeah!” Barry replied enthusiastically, getting up to stash the rest of his ice cream in the freezer- which was once again empty. “So how can I help?”

***

It quickly became apparent that Barry was the definition of kitchen disaster when it came to anything culinary, so he was banished to the kitchen table to polish off his ice cream.

“So, Doll,” seriously, was Mick calling him ‘Doll’ going to be a thing? “You mentioned that Dr. Wells, aka Eobard Thawne, was a time traveler from the future? What was that about?”

“Uh, yeah…” Barry shifted awkwardly.

“You don’t have to tell us, but sometimes just telling someone about it can make you feel better,” Len said gently.

“Also, how is that possible? Time travel?” Mick queried.

“Uh, yeah, well, the time travel is a speedster thing. If I run fast enough I can breech the time-space continuum and time travel.”

“How fast is that?”

“At least Mach 2.”

Mick gave an impressed grunt as he stirred something. Barry heaved a sigh. Might as well tell them, get it off his chest. You never know, it might actually be good for him, telling someone, even if those someone’s were his enemies.

“So, Eobard Thawne, he was called the Reverse Flash and apparently in the future we were arch enemies. He hated me, but he could never beat me. So he figured he would go back and kill me as a kid. But my future self followed him and got me out of there, so he killed my mom instead. My dad got blamed and was arrested- even though there wasn’t any evidence that he did it. Anyway, by doing that he changed my future and made it so I wouldn’t become the Flash, but because he got his powers _because_ of the Flash, his speed started failing. The only way for him to get to back to the future was to make sure that I became the Flash. So he used some future tech thing to take over Harrison Wells’ body or assume his physical appearance or whatever- I’m still not really sure how that happened- and built the particle accelerator and made sure it would explode, and made sure that I would be in the right place when it happened so that I would get struck by lightning and get my powers.”

“How did he make sure you were in the right place at the right time?”

“He kinda stalked me…my entire life. Or after he killed my mother, when I was eleven, at least. He had cameras everywhere- my house, my work, my families work- it was really 'big brother'…”

“That’s sick.” Mick looked offended on Barry’s behalf.

“Yeah, well, what are you gonna do? Anyway, when I got struck by lightning I fell in to a coma and was in the hospital, but I kept seizing because my heart was going too fast for the machines to register. Dr. Wells convinced Joe- Detective West, my foster father- to let him take me to STAR Labs to be treated. He said they could stabilize me. Not sure how he pulled that off as STAR Labs isn’t really known for medical work, but whatever. Joe was desperate and agreed, and the people at STAR _did_ manage to stabilize me. Nine months after I got struck by lightning I woke up. Scared the crap out of Cisco.” Barry huffed a small laugh at the memory. “Within a day I realized I had super speed and returned to STAR for testing and stuff. Like a week later I started working as a superhero- much to Caitlin’s chagrin. She’s always annoyed with me for getting hurt and being reckless- which is kinda fair, ‘cause she’s the one who always has to patch me up. Dr. Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin became my back up team, helping me stop crime and catch bad guys. You know, bad guys like _you,_ ” Barry gave them a pointed look, but there was a smile playing at his lips regardless. Mick and Len grinned unrepentantly. “Dr. Wells coached me on how to become faster. I really should have seen it coming, the way he talked about the speedforce. When he talked me through phasing I knew he had to be a speedster.”

“Phasing?” Len asked.

“Yeah,” Barry grinned. “when I vibrate at the same speed as air, I can phase through solid objects.” He raised his hand as he spoke, vibrating it and slowly pushing it through the table he was sitting at.

“Nice,” Mick grunted.

“Yeah, it’s pretty handy. Anyway, after that we started investigating Dr. Wells. Joe and Cisco went to the site of the car crash that killed Dr. Wells’ wife and found the real Harrison Wells’ body in a shallow grave. He died the same night as his wife. That was when Eobard Thawne took over his body or whatever. I’m pretty sure he caused the car crash too. We figured out that Eddie- Iris’ boyfriend and Joes partner- was Eobards great-something grandfather. He kidnapped Eddie to buy time to fix the particle accelerator. He planned for me to use it to access the time-space continuum so he could go home to his time. We found Eddie, but it was too late to stop the accelerator from going online. We had some metahumans in the cells in the pipeline, they were going to die if we didn’t get them out before the accelerator went online. That’s why I asked you,” he nodded in Len’s direction, “for help transporting them. Of course you ended up betraying us and freeing the metas, but I’m actually kinda glad. We meant to rehabilitate them but we never got around to it. It was unethical to keep them locked up like that without trial, and it would have been even worse to send them to a remote island outside the reaches of US law, still without trial. I would have felt horrible, it would have haunted me if the plan had worked. Plus, technically, you did keep your promise. You helped us get the metahumans to Ferris Air and the protected me from them when they escaped. That’s all I asked of you, so, you know…”

“I always keep my promises, kid,” Len said.

“Yeah, well. Anyway, when we caught Eobard he gave me a choice. I could go back in time and save my mother and send him home to the future, or I could keep him locked up. It was really hard to decide- I could save my mom, keep my dad from going to jail, have my parents back, but I’d have to give up everything I had to do so. I ended up going back in time to save her, but I didn’t do it. I didn’t save her. I watched her die. But at least this time I got the chance to say goodbye.” Barry’s eyes teared up a bit at the memory. He took a deep breath before continuing. “When I got back I stopped Eobard from going to the future. He was going to kill me- I was gonna lose- but Eddie…he shot himself. With him dead Eobard would never be born. He was erased from the timeline, which created a paradox. The time-space continuum tried to fix itself by creating the singularity- the black hole. I ran up and stabilized the wormhole by running in the opposite direction, but in order to stop it, Firestorm- two people, Ronnie- Caitlin’s husband- and Dr. Stein, who combine to create a person who can set himself on fire and fly and stuff- they flew up into the singularity and separated. I caught Dr. Stein on the way down, but Ronnie…he didn’t make it. Eddie and Ronnie died because of me. Because I didn’t save my mother, they had to sacrifice their lives to stop the singularity.” Barry lapsed into silence, looking at his hands on the table, lost in thought.

“Barry,” Mick grasped his shoulder. “They made their choices. That’s not on you.”

“Besides,” Len said, “with all the good you do, you’re making them proud.”

Barry looked up at them, his lips twitching up slightly at the corners. “Thanks.”

“Anytime kid,” Mick rumbled.

At that point the food was ready to go into the oven and they all migrated to the living room to watch CSI. Barry got hilariously worked up about the forensic inaccuracies, much to Len and Mick’s amusement.

The rest of the night passed lightly, the three of them making small talk and joking as they ate. When Barry fell asleep on the couch, Mick carried him to bed.


End file.
